Cyclone running back says offensive changes are going well

Iowa State junior running back Jeff Woody says the change in offensive coordinators has gone smoothly during spring drills. Courtney Messingham is directing the offense after Tom Harman left to join Urban Meyer’s staff at Ohio State.

“It’s different from what we’ve done before…there’s subtle changes, but there’s still enough to make it an entirely new offense,” Woody says. “The terminology is the same but the assignments that we are performing are a little bit different. I like, I know now what was going on and why we’re doing it.”

He says Messingham is a little more conversational than Harman was in explaining why they are doing things. Woody carried the ball 90 times a year ago and says he is working to become a better blocker. He says he wants to do whatever he can to get himself on the field, and he says they are moving more toward having him be a fullback type that blocks in the two back set.

Woody rushed for nearly 400 yards last season even though he felt his season got off to a slow start. “Up until about probably the Texas game, I was a lot more tentative, a lot more cautious in what I was doing…then something clicked,” Woody says.

He says once things go going he felt he had a successful season. Woody scored the winning touchdown in the upset over Oklahoma State.